Does agile need extremely competent people in order to work?

Tuesday, May 22, 2007 – 7:43 PM

This discussion has been going around for a while. Esther Derby’s post made me think a bit more about it.

I’m with her all the way on this. In fact I might go so far as to say I’d actually rather have a team of competent people than a team of extremely competent “stars” – especially people who think they are stars.

I think this applies to other team activities too…

In 1998 France won the Soccer World Cup beating a Brazilian team of “stars” thought to be unstoppable. How, by fielding a team that played as a team.

In cycling, in some ways the epitomy of a team activity, Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France because of solid support from his team and because his competitors were unable to attack effectively. Most notably Telecom who’s three star riders, Ullrich, Kloden and Vinokourov seemed to spend a lot of effort chasing each other and not putting pressure on Armstrong’s Discovery team, even when it looked weak. Lots of “stars” and poor teamwork lost out to a stronger team.

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